


Jungle Science

by Sephypsycologist



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Soft Vore, Vore, minor deaths, nobody named dies, safe vore, themes of experimentation on sentient beings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 10:52:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17099231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sephypsycologist/pseuds/Sephypsycologist
Summary: Reader finds themselves in a new job in a dangerous and unexplored jungle...full of monsters





	1. Arrival

The humidity had your hair sticking to your forehead, but adrenaline made you shiver. Surrounded by guns, even though you were only a biologist.

Well, it was more to protect you than to scare you, but you knew the government wanted you to know how very serious this job was. You were putting your life in danger just heading to the facility.

This jungle had been recently discovered, mostly because only three of the ten person research team that went into the area returned and nobody else had before then. There were creatures here beyond the laws of physics and it was very clear they didn’t like being messed with.

So naturally, the humans had set up a research lab and started capturing as many as possible for study. You rolled your eyes at the thought, but it’s true. Humans are dumb in large groups.

You realize the escort around you has stopped and is aiming their guns. What…what are they aiming at?

Looking around, you scan for a possible threat, shaking slightly. And then you spot them, two red lights in the shadows of the trees. They shutter, making it certain that they’re eyes and not stray lights. You stare, and below the eyes a glowing liquid begins dripping out. O-oh geeze, the creature is drooling.

The captain of the group notices your stare, swears loudly, then yells, “EIGHT O’ CLOCK, FIRE!”

There’s a screech as the bullets fly into the beast behind the eyes, and something huge and red smacks the whole group over, dragging three screaming soldiers into the darkness before it’s over.

The captain gets to his feet and screams at you, “You! You saw the fucker before we did and didn’t say shit! You idiot academic! You see something, you say something, got it?! My men might’ve lived if you weren’t an absolute moron!”

Something in your chest cracks, and you nod sadly as you get up. It’s your fault. You caused those men to be killed horribly. You’re responsible.

The rest of the walk to the facility is somber and uneventful. You’re met by the head researcher and shown around the facility. Your sleeping quarters, the cafeteria, the computer bay…and then the monster observation area.

There were so many. Some were small, just barely knee height, like the green slime creatures, some of the bug-like ones, and the strange white oscelot dogs???? They made small “hoi!” noises and crowded around you.

“These are Temmies. We named them after one of our researchers since they seemed to resemble her a bit. But…um…they can’t be contained. They literally vibrate out of any container and run around so we can’t control them, but they’re harmless.” The head researcher laughs as one extends its legs and goes “HOI” right in your face. You aren’t sure if you like Temmies.

But there were larger monsters. You walk past a massive purple spider-woman hybrid, her five eyes following you across the room with a sinister smile. Another is about seven feet tall and made entirely of flames. It sits on a pile of kindling and turns its ‘head’ to watch you even though you can’t find eyes in the humanoid fire.

Then you meet the rest of the team, all of them looking tired as they pat you on the shoulder and congratulate you on surviving your arrival. There’s a sting in your chest every time you hear that. They also warn you of massive skeletal snake creatures that are the most dangerous creatures in the forest. From their description, that was the creature that attacked your group.

You go to sleep that night with a Temmie snuggled up to your chest (despite you trying to move them) and have nightmares about bones and glowing red eyes.

–

As the newest scientist, you are the one who has to go out with the capture team. So despite your reluctance, you oversee the capture of the next few specimens.

No losses, and no sightings of the terrifying lights, but you capture a few monsters. One seems to be a walking bathtub of sorts, though it has a head and tail, and seems very interested in splashing your team with water and getting the mud off you. Another is a large horse-eel hybrid with rippling muscles. It winks at all the members in your group and makes all of you very uncomfortable when it flexes.

One day, though, as you’re walking along, you notice something, “WAIT!” the whole group stops.

Heavy drag marks in the dirt and underbrush, leaving a wavy trail. A snake, and a big one, thick enough to easily contain the largest of men without a thought. The group turns cautious, and you begin to track it.

A good hour later, you hear angry hissing and thrashing, complete with metallic clanks and the crash of falling trees. Everyone stopped still until the noise quieted, and then you moved forward.

In a clearing of its own making, a massive skeletal naga lay tangled in about seven different traps. A wooden cage was tangled around its hands, and three seperate bear traps were biting into the glistening red, translucent flesh of its tail. One of the bear traps had even clamped through to the spine, where red marrow was seeping slowly out. What surprised you most was the glittering gold fang on the left side of its jaw.

Approaching it, you are amazed until you hear it his and lunge, caught in the traps as it is. The naga can’t reach you, but it drools and snaps those terrifyingly sharp jaws repeatedly. Its eye sockets had red lights in them, and you realize with a start that they’re the same ones that peered out at you from the forest before. This is the creature that killed those men because of your negligence.

The realization makes you feel more than a little sick, especially as the beast struggles as massive tranquilizer darts are pumped into it. You’re going to have to see this creature every day now, a constant reminder of your guilt.

–

Since it was your observant catch that allowed for the capture of the naga, you’re moved to monster care. Well, technically it’s “specimen upkeep” but none of the other scientists call it that.

You fill the Temmies’ bowls with brightly colored cereal (don’t ask), drop fruits into the slime and insect types cages (giggling occasionally at the happy glorp of a slime sucking up an orange), and give meat to the more predatory creatures and wood chips and fresh logs to the fire being, all through chutes in the thick glass of the cage fronts.

And then the naga.

You took a deep breath and stepped into the little observation room on the side of his cage. There was only enough room for the creature to curl up in a tight coil, hiding its humanoid torso in the rolls of red magic flesh. Even though the traps had been removed after the sedation, the wounds were still fresh, oozing glistening material and making you wince. Though you were unsure of how its neural networks functioned, that had to hurt at least somewhat.

Some morbid part of you wondered if those men’s skeletons were lying in the stomach of this massive thing. Brushing the thought away in irritation, you turned back to the desk to start pressing the buttons to feed the creature.

It suddenly lunged at the glass, hissing and scraping is clawed finger bones against it, making you scream and fall flat on your behind in shock.

You don’t make the mistake of turning your back on it again.

–

The next weeks are…interesting. The naga refuses the food offered, flinging the calf carcasses back through the chute as soon as they drop out of it. It also keeps trying to break the glass wall between you and it…well, him. You’d observed some night-time tapes and gotten a clearer view of the remarkably similar pelvis shape to a human male, acute angle and everything.

Despite the pang you felt every time those red lights settled on you, you were determined to keep him alive. You’d taken to doing all your work in the observation area, besides when you fed and watched the other monsters.

And you talked, even though you were pretty sure he was unintelligent from the fact he never spoke. You talked about the fire monster, how something in the way it moved and seemed to observe you back with patience was calming. You talked about the shudder you always had when interacting with the insect types and the spider woman, though that was slowly fading as you realized none of them seemed to have any harmful intent.

But, mostly, you talked about yourself, your life and history, and your feelings. “It’s lonesome in there, huh, Red?” You asked him. He just continued to watch you, sullenly. “Yeah. Well, I’ve felt trapped like you, y’know. Every day out here, in fact, ever since you ate those guys from my entry escort.”

A humorless laugh comes out of you as you get out your lunch, a simple hamburger and fries. You hear an irritated hiss, and see Red looking at you, clear anger in his face. He realized you were eating in front of him and didn’t like it.

Curious, you take a bite, and he follows your motion, getting more agitated. But then you make a decision and swallow, showing your open mouth with nothing inside and then opening the (usually vestigal) feeding chute in the glass. He sniffs it, warily, before slurping it up with his forked tongue.

Then his expression changed. He got closer to the chute and watched it, but his eye lights darted to you. Now, the fries were too small to do him any good, but you excitedly ran off to the cafeteria and bought several more meals with the excuse of stocking up and reheating them for later use while researching.

Every move measured, you observed. If you bit the burger first, then gave it to him, Red would eat it. But he wouldn’t touch the ones you simply sent in, even after several bitten ones. That….well, if he was intelligent, you’d say he was making sure you weren’t poisoning him, but he couldn’t be….could he?

You write down everything you obvserve about him for the remainder of the week, despite the now constant soft “hoi” sounds as the Temmies have claimed your room as their base.

This is not an unwelcome development. Soft fluffy creatures like them make you feel much less alone…and they seem to appreciate your pets and snuggles as much as you appreciate their company. You decide to knit them sweaters on your long night watches, at least while Red is sleeping.

—

Red expects you to feed him now, and you do. You buy ten times as much as you aught to in the food area and eat only about half a meal yourself. One bite out of anything is enough for him to accept it as clean and eat it.

You’re excited that he’s eating at all, as his wounds from capture had not begun to heal until he began taking your food. Even with the little you can feed him without running dry of funds, his magic flesh is beginning to thin and shrink away from his bones. You’re very worried for him now.

“Red, what are we going to do with you?” you murmur, a Temmie with extended legs hovering around your desk behind you. He’s watching it in curiosity, not listening to you in the slightest.

Finally, you tell your supervisors what you’ve observed.

They berate you for wasting resources by feeding the specimen human food and tell you to stop or be taken back to capture squad.

—-

Red refuses to eat now that you aren’t allowed to feed him. He stares at you, but throws the calves back again as before even though he sees you push the button.

He starts to waste away more and his wounds cease healing.

Finally you can’t stand it. “Red,” you plead, literally on your knees, leaned against the glass with his eyes on you, “I’m begging you, eat the meat. I know you don’t trust it, but you have to eat. I’ll sneak you food when I can but I can’t get extra anymore or I won’t be able to be with you anymore. Do you want me to leave?”

He blinks, then sighs and actually rolls his eyes, shaking his head.

He…answered you. He understood.

“You….you’ll eat if I press the button then? And I’ll give you half my lunch if you do?” maybe it was a fluke.

No, he nods eagerly and grins more than usual.

You jump up and down in celebration and hug the nearest Temmie so hard it squeaks at you like a toy. “You understand me! You’re intelligent! Oh stars, Red, you’re amazing!”

He hoods his sockets with those strange bone-eyelids and smirks, but blushes a bit.


	2. Teaching moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You make great leaps in progress with the monsters

The bargain you struck with Red worked. He ate the calves he was fed, and you gave him half your sandwiches as a reward.

Of course, this was not ideal, as he should be eating far more at his size, and had repeatedly tried to claw at the opening the calves came from to get access to more food. You had to apologize over and over for that, especially those heart breaking times when you heart his stomach growl and couldn’t give him anything.

Red had also stopped being aggressive toward you entirely. Instead, when you’d come in, he’d perk up and coo at the glass, maybe purr if it was late enough in the afternoon that food was close and he’d had time to wake up. You didn’t trust him entirely, despite this, though. After all, you still caught him staring intently at you now and again and you knew better than anyone how hungry he was.

But you had begun reaching out to more than just Red, too.

You’d tried with the fire being first, since that one never moved from its pile of kindling. You waved at it, then smiled when you came in. At first nothing happened, but after about three days, it waved back and a streak of white hot fire in the shape of a jack-o-lantern mouth lit up the head portion of it. You’d started doing some sign language with it from then on, with spectacular results.

Then you’d done the same with your spider-lady friend. For her, you bowed first, then spoke to her and gave her some pastries. She instantly responded, bowing after accepting your gift and giving chittering noises in response. No, you couldn’t understand her, but she clearly understood that you were trying to communicate and seemed eager to do the same.

What a find, you’d thought to yourself as you played with the Temmies one night. As far as you could tell, with every new attempt proving the theory, the monsters as a whole were intelligent beings, at least on par with gorillas if not more so.

Even your Temmies were improving, giving you small words along with their “hoi”.

“Hoi furen”

“hoi frin”

“hoi tem”

The first two were always toward you, but the last was always toward another Temmie. They were adressing each other as “tem” and you as “friend”.

You had become one of them, to some extent, and you really didn’t mind. The monsters, though terrifying at first glance, and excluding Red, had never tried to hurt you or even approach you. But they accepted your approaches and every day was a further improvement on how much you could understand each other.

A whole new world was opening.

–

Reading to them was the next step. You focused on Red with this, but the Temmies were naturally present for it also. Perhaps they thought of you as pack leader now or something, but either way, you were never without at least three Temmies anymore.

The other scientists were getting surprised at the little furballs saying words to them. You told Red about this and he grinned at you. His purring was more frequent now, too, especially when you told stories while making dramatic motions.

He liked hearing your voice, clearly, as when you did read to him, he would sometimes fall asleep next to the glass. The sleeping began to worry you when you realized he wasn’t waking up as early as he had been. He was starting to sleep through most of the day due to lack of food and you were frustrated. Your superiors disregarded anything you said, either about his intelligence or about his need for increased food.

One day though, they had to listen. The chute door that allowed Red’s food into his cage became stuck and would not open no matter what he tried or how many times you pressed the button.

Maintenance was scheduled, and you went about your duties that day. You dallied with your fire friend, signing your reluctance to leave. He (you’d found out he was male by asking) encouraged you to move on, giving a big grin as he signed [go see red, pretty lady]

You stuck your tongue out at him and nodded. Cheeky fireman, teasing you about being pretty. He had no idea how ugly your inside was. Had to be, you’d let Red eat three men and now you were babying the guy like he was your best friend.

Just as you walked in, you saw the chaos. Red had the sedative darts still in him, but they clearly hadn’t used enough. He reared up from his coils, grabbed the guy fixing the chute with his mouth and gulped him down easily. The soldiers were starting to raise their guns.

Not again.

Later, you couldn’t recall exactly when you started yelling and running, but the soldiers were trying to push you back. You didn’t let them; instead you marched up to Red and yelled, “RED!”

He blinked and turned his attention to you, as did the soldiers.

“You spit that man out this instant!” You were angry. You were so angry that he’d do this again, after you’d told him what the last time did to you. After you’d spilled your whole soul out to him and he’d do this again.

He hissed and crossed his arms over his belly. Clear no.

“Red, you listen to me.” There were tears in your eyes. “If you don’t spit him out RIGHT NOW, I am NEVER reading to you again. Do you hear me?!”

He gasped, then whined softly, rolling on his back and continuing to look down at you, attempting to be pitiable. The men began to back off.

“Red, I swear! No more books, no more talking! You spit him out or I won’t talk to you again for a week! Maybe a whole year!” His tantrum got worse, growling and whining interchangably while he rolled around.

“Your choice, Red.” You said and immediately closed your eyes and stopped speaking.

He poked at you gently, touching you for the first time, but you didn’t move. Then you heard the gagging and the splat combined with panicked screaming as the poor worker ran off.

Sighing, you opened your eyes and smiled tiredly, “Good boy, Red. Come here.” He purred and leaned down, letting you gently stroke his cheekbone, “You don’t eat people any more, okay? You know it makes me sad. But you listened and did the right thing. I’m so proud of you.”

The massive beast was purring deeply, sockets closed in bliss as your hand smoothed across his bones.

Now the higher ups HAD to listen to your opinion on Red.

–

You have full control over monster care now. The other scientists are in charge of gauging and improving the communication abilities of the monsters, including the Temmies (who now speak in full, if broken, sentences).

And Red is your sole responsibility. You teach him to read, and to speak, and to write even. He’s a very fast learner, mimicking you quickly and becoming toddler level in a matter of weeks.

“lady~” he coos when you come in, using inflection to show how very pleased he is to see you.

“more!” the irritated response when you only press the button to feed him once just to tease him. He nods curtly when you press it again and pouts when you giggle.

“story?” the question as the day closes out, asking if you’re going to read more to him.

You see him scratch into the wall “MORE LADY!!!” when he realizes where the camera is in his enclosure, and you blush. He certainly likes you being around.

Finally, after a while, you ask, “Red, are you comfy?”

He shakes his head, “no. tight. hurts me.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” you get up to tell the higher ups his needs.

“no! no no, stay. stay here.” he pushes against the glass, eye lights small as he looks at you, breath coming quick into his ribs, “lady. lady stay here. want you here.”

You smile warmly at him and put your hand to the glass, dwarfed by the smallest bone of his fingers, “Red, I’ll come back once I tell them what you said. I promise.” Crossing your fingers over your heart, he seems placated and calms down.

“promise. good.” he huffs a bit and curls up, “wait here.”

“Yeah, you wait, big boy. I’ll be back,” You giggle as he blushes. He hates being reminded how big he is compared to you, for some reason.

–

Red gets a new enclosure, with grass and a tree, enough space to move in. He zips around eagerly and you get some time with the other monsters as he explores.

Grillby, the fire monster, had improved vastly in his signing and had managed to write with some charcoal from his own flames. It turns out he preferred actual food to kindling, and he’s much more active now that he isn’t tied to the fire pit and he’s been granted some fire-proof, corrective lenses. He smiles at you, [hello, lady friend. thank you for your kindness.]

You brushed his compliment off, and you caught up with him. He liked his teacher well enough, though he missed you. He asked about Red, and you told him the progress you’d made.

[good. his kind do better if they have room to nest.] Grillby nodded and sighed. His flames had slowly taken on a shape more and more like a human, till now he was almost statuesque.

You beam, “Now who’s pretty, Grillby? You’re shaping up to be quite handsome.”

He turned bright blue and covered his face with one hand, [go away, please]

His glow follows you for quite a ways off, and the heat from his body farther.

–

Muffet, the spider, tends to giggle, but her speech is impeccable now. “Dearie, really, we’ve been so lonely since you holed yourself away with Red.”

Blushing a bit, you nod, “I know, but he’s so needy sometimes. I only got away today because he has a new enclosure to explore.”

“Hmmhmm, of course. The little ones told me,” she hummed and kept spinning. She had countless smaller spiders going in and out of her area at any time, so small there was no stopping them. “But dearie, do be careful. He’s needy because nagas can be quite possessive. You do deserve your own life.”

“I know, Muffet.” You’ve ended up spun into a fabulous dress, complete with hardened webbing buttons. She has a talent for clothing design, it seems. “Thank you for the dress, as well. I’ll keep it safe from the Temmies.”

She bows to you as you leave, and you curtsy in return.

—

“hooman like snek?” Temmie Blue asked you. You’d given each of them different colored sweaters to tell them apart.

“Yes, I like Red a lot. He’s funny,” you reply as you brush your hair before bed.

Temmie Blue giggled and did a circle on the counter before replying, “snek like hooman, too. yeah yeah!”

A chorus of agreeing “HOI”s came from the bedroom of your quarters.

You laugh softly and pick up Temmie Blue, placing her down on the ground before heading to bed. “You guys are funny, too. Goodnight, tem village.”

“night hooman!”

“ni-ni!”

“sweet dreams for alls!”

“hoi night.”

You fall asleep before all of them have finished their goodnight nonsense.

–

Red’s nest does appear after a few days of his new enclosure. It’s mostly made of insulation pads that were supposed to have been put on the walls to sound proof them, but Red had not allowed the workmen to do that. So now there were black soft foam pads all piled in the corner farthest from the opening that allowed people into the enclosure and the opening to the rest of the facility.

His daily greetings are getting better, “hello, lady. morning is nice.” You know he means “good morning” but it’s funny to hear him approximate.

Actually, as you teach him and read to him, you realize he’s probably far more advanced in understanding than he lets on, but keeps making beginner mistakes to amuse you and himself.

“Red, are you holding back on me?” you ask him when he purposefully misreads the word ‘ghost’ as ‘g-host’ despite you teaching him the ‘gh’ sound long ago.

“what? no no!” His smile is teasing, though, and you give him a look through the glass that usually gets a response. He looks down, “kinda.”

“No more, okay? You talk as best you can so I can actually help you!” You stick your tongue out at him. He does the same to you.

–

It happens on a normal day. Red’s done well with his lessons, actually using his grammar (even though he’s over enunciating just to bug you), and you’re giving him a treat of a burger, his favorite.

But instead of just taking it from you or letting you drop it into his enclosure, he shoots up to the door and wraps his tongue around your arm.

You freeze in panic as that wet, red magic tugs on you, but it’s over as soon as it began, and your hand is empty.

Sliding down the glass, you face the office as your escort of Green, Yellow, and Purple Temmie all swam up and nuzzle you. All the Tems have tuned themselves to your mindset, and they know instinctively now when you need support.

“lady? you okay? it…it was just a joke,” Red’s voice was small and worried…and right behind you.

You cry, and something in your chest aches.

He gasps behind you, and begins speaking quickly, “oh no. no no no, lady, don’t do that. your soul….oh lady, i didn’t mean to make it worse, i’m sorry!” Red slithers away then, and you feel his warmth vanish.

“hooman shhh, tem got you,” coos Green Temmie, nuzzling your cheek to dry the tears. “you is safe with tem.”

“no hurt soul, no no. tem keep you safe,” adds Purple Temmie, while Yellow nods so fast her face floats off her head for a moment.

You love the Temmies. You love them so much and you never ever want to leave this place, because you know they couldn’t come with you if you did.

Human governments are so stupid.

–

You don’t interact with Red the next day. You talk to Grillby, you talk to Muffet, you talk to Woshua (the bathtub; turns out he’s a germaphobe and enjoys cleaning. he’s the new facility janitor and the place has never been cleaner), and you sit in the corner with the Whimsuns (tiny insect monsters the size of a figurine, since you’re quiet around them, they flutter to sit in your hair and you hear them whispering soft, kind things).

The other scientists offer you encouragement when you tell them what happened. Any creature that big, especially a former man eater, is bound to slip up sometimes, but you’ve made huge strides with him and he clearly hadn’t intended to hurt you from his reaction.

Even the Tems relay their opinions.

“snek say he sorry, go talk yeah.”

“big bad snek, but him sad now.”

“no sad hooman! no sad snek! make nice plz!”

You can’t say no to the Tems.

Red is curled up in his nest when you go in finally. You can only see his coils and not his face, so you use the intercom, “Red?”

He perks his head up instantly, eye lights flashing brightly for a minute before dimming to a barely visible state as he slides forward slowly, “lady? are…you okay?”

“Honestly, no, but I came to try and fix that,” you tell him. If you’re totally clear, you’ve been messed up since that first day, but he knows that.

“it’s all my fault your soul is cracked,” he murmurs, laying down next to the glass. You see watery red magic building up in his sockets, “was so stupid, and i’m sorry.”

“My soul? What? You talk like you can see it. And how could it crack?” How did he even learn that word?

“i can. and it is.” He sighs, letting the tears fall finally, “baby, monsters see souls, and yours is cracked cause of what i did. that first day, i saw your group and just thought about food, but….then i saw ya again and saw the crack and…it made me angry. ‘s why i lunged at ya, cause i recognized that you got away, and i was mad cause seeing your soul cracked like that hurt me.”

Red had been falling into a strange accent lately, and it was coming out more now that he was emotional. You listen, even though you can’t quite understand how a soul could crack when it’s ethereal.

“an’ now that you’ve been so good ta me and fed me and kept the soldiers off me an’ everything….i mess up. i crack your soul more for some stupid prank and i’m so so sorry.”

The pain in your chest…both the times he mentioned your soul cracking had coincided with that pain. Maybe he was telling the truth. “I don’t….Red, it was my fault.”

“LIKE HELL IT WAS!” he roars and you shield your ears. “Sorry….sorry. you just…that’s how you crack your soul more, baby. blamin’ yourself for things you didn’t do.”

“Why are you calling me baby?” you try to change the subject.

“cause you’re small, soft, and something to protect and care about. isn’t that what a baby is?” he sighs, and the steam of his breath on the glass makes a small upside down heart shape from his nasal cavity. “just….can you forgive me for hurting you, human? and….and for the mechanic thing, too. you were right to get mad at me for that; i could’ve gotten us both killed.”

You place your hand on the heart that’s slowly fading from the glass, “Red…thank you for apologizing. And I do forgive you, but….I just can’t trust you yet.”

“that’s okay,” he sounds sad, but that gold fang in his mouth glimmers, “i don’t deserve to be trusted yet. but i’ll work on it.”

The temmies around the desk start cheering and the two of you laugh from the broken mood.

—

The atmosphere between you and Red isn’t the same, but it’s not so tense anymore.

He watches you intently, still, but you can relax more. When you stick your hand into the chute, he stays back until you’re out.

But he asks every day, “would you come in here?”

And you have to say, “No.”

But he smiles and shrugs, and the day goes along fine.

One time, you even catch him dancing….somehow. His expression is intense, as if he’s concentrating very hard, while his body sways and wriggles strangely. When you finally get up the nerve to interrupt him, his whole skull goes bright red and his eye lights go out, “oh my stars, human, don’t!”

You ask him what that dance was, and he refuses to tell you, proceeding to hide in his nest for the rest of the day.

—

Red Tem has wandered into the higher ups’ area of the building, and you know they don’t like monsters to be in that area, so you follow the little creature in.

“hoi, secret tems is secret,” you hear her whisper as you pick up the naughty tem.

But then you hear the words “naga” and “weapon” in quick succession behind the door you’re next to.

This is your perview now.

“Even with his intelligence, it means we could use his offspring should we find a suitable mate for him. We won’t teach the new batches, of course, and once we have enough for the bio-weapon program, we’ll kill the first generation to get rid of the possibility of rebellion.”

You gasp without meaning to, and there’s a scraping of chairs, “What was that?!”

Before you can think, you’re pelting down the hall, letting Red Tem loose, “Warn the other good humans to get out! I’m releasing the monsters!”

“HOI!” Red Tem is off like a shot and you know your network of loyal colors will spread the news.

You start small, releasing the whimsuns and moldsmols (slimes) first, then move up. A few of the newer monsters don’t recognize you, mostly some vegetative creatures called Parsniks, and they send attacks your way, but you’re already on to the next cage.

You fling Muffet’s doors open, “Tell the monsters you see to run. They want to make you all into weapons or kill you!” 

The spider woman nods, leaning down to kiss the top of your head as she leaves, “Good luck, dearie.”

You’ve never felt more blessed.

–

Grillby doesn’t even sign, the moment he sees you, he’s rushing out in a blaze of glory, setting the place on fire. You only have Red left to free, and your Temmies are helping the other monsters to escape.

The smoke is rising as you quickly use your card to fling open the door to his enclosure, “Red! You need to escape!”

You look inside and see nothing. He’s not in his nest, or anywhere around the ground.

“Red?” you call, getting worried, “Red please! I’m not joking! The government wants to breed you and then kill you! They just wanted bio-weapons….”

Against your better judgement, you go into his enclosure and walk in deeper, “Red please! We can talk about what to do next later. The building is on fire and I can’t leave you!”

Under the tree, you finally start feeling the fire behind you. “Red, if we don’t leave soon, we’ll burn alive!”

Something curls around you and you shriek, pulled high into the air and deep into the foliage of the tree.

Red is all around you, literally. His tail is coiled over your body, and you’re face to face with him. “then there’s no time to waste. take a breath, babe, cause this is gonna get strange.” He kissed your forehead gently, but then opened his jaws and very softly laid you inside. Again you were frozen with fear, but there were no Temmies to comfort you now. Mostly, you felt betrayal, especially after the recent talk you had where he’d apologized for eating people, only to be doing so to YOU NOW.

He swallowed gently, but you screamed and struggle, “Red, I thought you cared!” You choke as some magic gunk gets in your mouth, and a pain shoots through your chest. Great, if that’s your soul, it’s probably ripped in half by now. The choking gets the better of you, and you end up passing out before you even reach his stomach.

–

Birdsong was the first thing you were aware of. It was beautiful, soft and light. You could feel the sun on your back and smell the grass in its warmth. Cushiony fabric on your fingers, one of the Temmies’ sweaters, surely, since you felt their fluffy forms cuddled against you.

But outside? You didn’t remember camping…

You jolt awake as you remember the previous evening.

Before you, Red’s face. He’s asleep, deeply, a dribble of luminescent drool coming from his mouth, and has his arms and tail all wrapped around you and your pile of snoozy, snuggly Tems. You’re in the forest, leaves above you moving to reveal a clear blue sky.

The Tems around you begin to stir and squeak happily, nuzzling you.

“hoi hooman!”

“hoi! morning!”

“yeah yeah, morning!”

“you got to sleeps in the snek tum!”

“so spook!”

“tems make sure all frens gets out of bad place!”

“you safes now!”

You see Red’s sockets open slowly, the dim lights inside brightening as he whispered, “g’morning, babe. feel better?” He has that groggy, sweet smile you’re used to seeing when waking him up from a nap, and you feel yourself start to tear up.

“Wh-why did you…e-eat me?” you hiccup slightly, wiping your face.

The Tems pat you as he shushes you gently, “hey, hey, i’m really sorry. i just knew it’d be easier to get both of us out than me just teleporting and leaving you behind. what kind of guy would i be to do that to…to ah….” His cheek bones turned red slowly as he fumbled into silence.

“Teleport?” You asked, dumbfounded.

“yeah, uhm….can’t do it if i’m too injured, so i couldn’t for a while there but…..” he looked away, “even once i could, i didn’t want to. cause you were there, and i wanted to be with you.”

Many more excited pats from the Tems keep you from going into a shocked daze, “You could have escaped once you were healed, but you didn’t….just to stay with me?”

“uh…yeah.” He hid his face in his coil for a minute, then peeked out, “and…well, then we were learnin’ to communicate and…i almost left when i cracked your soul that one time but i didn’t cause that’d just be stupid of me.”

The fluffy piles around you shift and begin to wander off, exploring.

“babe, the past few months were rough, but i wouldn’t trade them for anything, cause i got to know you. i couldn’t teleport ya if you weren’t inside my body, weird i know, but that’s the rules of magic. and i felt that,” he points at your chest, “i felt that crack get deeper and i’m so sorry, but in the end, we’re together and safe and….and i just love ya and can’t stand that i hurt you again.”

You crossed your hands over your chest. So that was it….that was your soul cracking. But it felt so warm now, as you watched his nervous eye lights searching your face. Those red lights that had been in your nightmares….could they really be seeing to your very core?

“Show me.”

“what?” he yelped softly, “babe, souls are real intimate things, are you sure you want me to-”

“Show me, Red.” Flat tone, absolutely certain.

He gulped slightly and nodded, “a-alright. um….” his claw barely brushed the back of your hands, and from out of it came a brightly colored heart. You felt emptied, but excited, even as you saw the deep fracture across its surface. There was even a pale line off the end of it, and you asked, “What does the line mean?”

Red’s expression made you go quiet. There was reverence, tenderness, and utter adoration mixing on his face, his cheekbones soft pink, “that um…that means it’s healed a little bit. used to be the crack went all the way to the end of it, but somethin’….um, something closed it up.”

Even as he spoke, the pale line filled in more of the crack till it was two thirds of its supposed maximum size. You moved your hands, cupping your damaged soul back into your chest, sighing as it sank in, “well…it helps to know the truth of things.”

He seemed to snap out of a trance, and asked tentatively, “so, what are you going to do now?”

You look around you. Temmies playing, Red’s soft coils lying easily around, a forest full of friends, somewhere out there. “I’m going to stay here. I’d be labeled a traitor if I go back. And I already said I couldn’t leave you.”

The surge of magic through his body was indescribable, but you felt it and beamed. At least you did before he began smothering you in kisses as you dissolved into relieved tears and laughter. It was hard to admit, but your life wasn’t yours without Red in it.

And it seems he felt the same about you.


End file.
